Monday, February 01, 2010

Back To Club Gitmo

About (Saving) Face by NRO contributors Bill Burck and Dana Perino lists eight reasons why the KSM trial will be moved back to Guantanamo Bay and a military tribunal. Obama and Eric Holder appear not to have considered any of these reasons, elsewise they simply would not have made a decision that is so STUPID on so many levels.

Here's the gist of just one:

It is impossible for the Obama administration to provide a coherent explanation as to why KSM needs to be tried in civilian court. They can’t say they believe civilian courts are more legitimate than military commissions, because that would undermine military commissions. They can hint, through unnamed sources, that they are sending the “slam dunk” cases to civilian court and the weaker ones to military commissions with their more flexible evidentiary standards, but they can’t say that in the open without appearing to acknowledge what many critics have charged — the civilian trials will serve little purpose other than as show trials of the obviously guilty, while the real work of determining guilt or innocence will happen in the military commissions. If they had the courage of their purported convictions that terrorists who wage war on the United States are entitled to the same protections as common criminals, the administration would abandon military commissions altogether, rather than channel the more difficult cases to them. Unwilling to take this step, and in the face of bipartisan opposition to civilian trials, the administration will be left with no choice but to fully embrace military commissions for all Guantanamo detainees whom they wish to put on trial, including KSM.

The administration’s bungling has ensured that KSM can’t get a fair civilian trial.

Let’s see. Attorney General Holder, the nation’s top law-enforcement officer, has said KSM is guilty and should die. Check. The president has said more or less the same. Check. The entire political leadership of New York has announced that they cannot support trying him in New York City because of the disruption to the city and the sheer danger of holding KSM in downtown Manhattan. Check. The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, has disclosed that the threat environment is such that trying KSM in New York City is just too dangerous. Check. The president’s chief spokesperson has said that no matter where KSM is tried, he “is going to meet his maker.” Check.

It’s difficult to imagine anyplace in the United States that would not be prejudiced by these types of statements.

The Obama administration cannot afford even the remote possibility that a federal judge will rule that KSM cannot receive a fair trial. Indeed, one suspects that the administration’s most recent guarantee of KSM’s execution, made by senior advisers on the Sunday talk shows, is a hint they are no longer concerned about pre-trial publicity because the decision to send the matter back to a military commission has already been made.

If the Obama administration is not at the very least that reasonable - and I don't believe they are - there's big trouble ahead. In fact, I maintain that the whole fiasco constitutes a case of providing aid and comfort to the enemy.